Duffin, Robert

Physics

0.45/4.00

0.45/4.00

PHYS 101

Sophomore
N/A
Required (Major)
Sep 2017

Dr. Duffin is truly the definiton of incompetent. Doesn't answer questions, has no clue how to teach anything. I would genuinely rather be taught by a potato. Also he smells like a pile of shit. If you have a choice, AVOID THIS CLASS AT ALL COSTS. I usually don't go on these websites but it 100% necessary in this case. The student body is currently trying to get him fired and we are putting every ounce of energy into it because he is that terrible.

PHYS 123

Junior
N/A
Elective
Dec 2015

I hate writing anything bad about a person, but if you can avoid taking Dr. Duffin, please do. I understand that this was only his first quarter at Cal Poly, but I did not enjoy his class at all. I only had him for PHYS 123 lab, but during that time, he was super uninformative, disorganized, and impatient when you ask him questions. He can also be very degrading at times. He expects you to understand the material (before he explains it) and was never prepared for lab. We figured out the experiments ourselves and helped each other out the whole 10 weeks. There are no lab quizzes, but there are lab reports due every week. They are a pain and are graded super inconsistently. I usually love labs and they help me understand the concepts learned in class better, but this lab did the complete opposite.

PHYS 132

Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
May 2016

According to Robert Duffin, the temperature of ice water is 4 degrees C. It is not.

Junior
N/A
Required (Major)
May 2016

His Breath is absolutely atrocious

Freshman
B
Required (Support)
May 2016

Please, young students, take heed of the warnings you see on this page. The physics department at Cal Poly is horrendous and filled with bad professors. But there are decent options. Robert Duffin is simply not one of them. DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO AVOID TAKING HIS CLASS. Even if it means graduating late, avoid him.
I had Dirty Duffin for lecture and lab. In the lecture, all he does is copy down notes onto the board for 90 minutes. He would rarely do example problems, but when he did, he did them incorrectly. Students would call him out, and he would just argue with them. Muff-Diving-Duff tries to avoid answering questions. One time, he ended class early in order to avoid answering a question that he did not know the answer to. Pimp Daddy Duff's tests are not fun. They are unreasonably hard. He does not give you study material or tips. He will not tell you the format of the test. This makes it hard to study. The saving grace, though, is that you can have a page of notes for each tests.
As for the lab, it is not much better. Duff Daddy usually struggled with the labs himself. They aren't very hard. He's just dumb.
For the love of god, do not take this class.

PHYS 141

Freshman
B
Required (Support)
Dec 2015

I did not like having Dr. Duffin. His lectures were virtually all just doing problems on the board, and he didn't stop very often to explain in detail. He often didn't fully understand and/or fully answer student questions in class. He doesn't seem like the most intelligent person. PHYS 141 with Dr. Duffin was basically a repetition of high school physics with a couple added concepts. He's probably not the worst professor you could take, but I wouldn't recommend him.

Sophomore
D
Required (Support)
Dec 2015

This guy is horrible, avoid like the plague.
He's a bad teacher, you don't learn anything from lecture. Quizzes are random and somewhat easy, but he makes his test (especially the final) unreasonably hard and 100x more difficult than the quiz.
If you want to learn nothing and struggle in the class, Duffin's your man.

Sophomore
A
Required (Support)
Jan 2016

If you have taken high school physics (AP Physics B for me but didn't receive applicable credit at Poly), this class should be easy. Very little is calculus based so there are a lot of repeated concepts from high school. If physics does not come easy to you, I highly recommend reading the book and ensuring you understand the homework problems now because I did notice some people struggling with the way he explained it in class. Not a very clear professor to follow, but it was his first quarter and he is a nice enough guy. I certainly imagine you could do worse but wouldn't recommend.

Freshman
N/A
Required (Support)
Feb 2016

Duff-daddy is one of america's underappreciated heros. He starts class a minimum of 5 minutes late because he is usually off saving the world. His intellectual prowess coupled with his absent minded proffessor mannerisms create a wonderful atmosphere of physics problems that are far beyond the mental capacity of the class. But dont worry!! You wont feel left behind because duff-muff himself cannot comprehend the problems he is teaching. The result is a quaint little environment where no one feels like they are lesser than their peers because everyone struggles equally! Duffman is a humble character, he constantly asks the class to check over his work for him because he knows there are probably several mistakes in his work on the board. But dont you go around telling people that Duffin-puffin is a softy. When you complain in class about how his tests are insanely unfair or how his example problems dont relate to the material in the book, he brings down the hammer! He will yell at you until you give up because you feel as though you are arguing with a rock. This is just one example of the tough love that Duffoon shows all of his admiring disciples. At first I thought that I was screwed when I got stuck in his class, because of his low poly rating, but after a few classes of nonsense, I quickly learned I was really screwed. If you like failing midterms because they have questions that were never covered in class or the reading.... PLEASE TAKE THIS CLASS. ALL PRAISE LORD DUFFIN.

Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Feb 2016

If you are stuck in the last registration bracket and need a physics class NO NOT TAKE HIM! This happened to me and I crashed 8 other physics classes until I got a different class. Everyone in his class hates him and his stupidity. Crash classes, or take physics next quarter, but stay away from Duffin!

Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Feb 2016

Duffin wants you to succeed, and will not irrationally fail you. If you attend his lectures, go through the in class examples, and ask him about the procedure for tests - I promise you will do just fine for physics one. I honestly don't know why students give him such a hard time, he is a decent professor.

Freshman
N/A
Required (Major)
Mar 2016

Pretty sure the review below mine is from Duffin himself...
AVOID AT ALL COSTS LIKE THE CHILI CHEESE CORN DOGS AT METRO!!

Freshman
B
Required (Major)
Mar 2016

If you don't have a solid background in physics from high school don't expect to get one from the Duff. He's definitely very very smart, but he doesn't know how to translate that knowledge over to his students. He just brings papers to class and copies down his examples quickly with little explanation. Expect to be confused with very vague and arbitrary examples in class and he hates numbers so hopefully you're real good with variables. Also don't expect to get a real answer when asking a question on your first try. He has an incredible talent of telling you something totally unrelated to the question posed. His class never failed to entertain me though so if you are solid with physics and this class doesn't really matter to you I would recommend Duffin because he'll give you something to laugh about every day which is usually him.

Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2016

I was indifferent towards this professor's unpredictability with grading and the material he tested on because I was doing pretty well on the weekly quizzes and compared to the rest of the class, I did well on the two midterms. I thought I was in a good place for the final to either get a A or B in the class, until I took it. It was the most ridiculous test ever and a horrible representation of my knowledge and the material we covered in class. I was worried about even passing the class after it. I feel like I wasted my entire quarter studying so hard to grade my grade high and then the final just took away all my hard work. I ended with a C-. BEYOND mad. Don't take him.

Freshman
C
Required (Major)
Mar 2016

This man will ruin your life. He will test you on things that are never covered, he won't teach you anything, and he might actually make you hate your major (if you're a physics major). I came into physics having gotten a B in AP physics C and passing the AP test. I thought taking a refresher course would be helpful but with Duffin, it just made me angry and upset. In a of just over 40, Duffim had at least five people wait-listed. By the end of the 3rd week, there was an average of 15 open seats per class. Having been tought nothing, I figured how hard could his final be? This was the hardest test I have ever taken, even harder than the physics C test. I can't believe Duffin is aloud to teach at CalPoly and I am genuinely upset at the school for making me pay to waste time and possiblu lose knowledge, be yelled at, then kill my GPA. It's a disgrace more than anything else. Avoid this professor at all costs.

Freshman
C
Required (Support)
Mar 2016

Duffin's lectures were incredibly unhelpful. All he did was copy down problems from his notes and failed to explain anything clearly. He provided vague answers to student questions and frequently was wrong on example problems. I did all the homework, read the book, and watched khan academy in order to actually learn anything (I also took AP Physics in high school). I managed to have a B going into the final. However, the final was incredibly hard and many of the questions included material never covered in class or on the homework. Unless you have good previous knowledge of physics, I'd avoid this professor at all costs.

Freshman
C
Required (Support)
May 2016

Okay let's be clear here Duffin is a nice person at heart and wants to see his students succeed. He just has a very odd way of showing it. It seems like its been a while since Duffin worked out physics problems. I feel like most of his lecture material was found in online examples. If you asked a question on a problem, he'd usually hit you with a scripted vague response over and over. DON'T YOU DARE QUESTION HIS EXPLANATION OR TEACHING METHODS! This will definitely unleash the beast inside that yells and doesn't care how stupid his reasoning is. I thought it was funny though and looked forward to it. His lesson plan left a lot to be improved. You mostly just do examples and don't actually learn the material. There is also no organization or format to his lecture notes. It'd take a whole hour for him to CORRECTLY setup one problem and solve it without a mistake. Duffin will just do random problems that have nothing to do with our homework and quiz for the week. Mostly just jumping around the book and not even telling you what chapter or section you're in. He'll ask questions to the class like, "You guys remember the equation?" and stuff, but the problem is we never actually learned the material. If you ask what to study in preparation for quizzes and exams, he'll get you with his one-liner, "Anything's fair game. Anything from the book. Anything from lecture. Anything from class." The tests and quizzes weren't that bad because he's a push-over and will usual help if you keep asking him dumb questions. If he doesn't screw up on setting up the problems, usually they're not too bad. The final was a pile of shit. We never actually learned the information on the final and he decided to make it even more challenging. I wouldn't recommend the class unless physics is your go to and you don't need to learn it from Duffin. Anyways, enjoy Duffdaddy if ya got em.

Freshman
D
Required (Support)
May 2016

I took Duffin fall quarter and did not do well but I am not one to blame the professor. I blamed myself for not allotting enough time to the class, thought I might not have been listening, etc.. Now I am in another 141 class with a different professor that still isn't the best but I have an A. With ease. I realize it really isn't that I'm bad at physics or a bad student but in fact Duffin's inability to teach the material. I was blocked in and didn't think I had a choice but I urge you to not take this class. You really should avoid it. It would be better to be an entire quarter behind in physics than to take him.

Sophomore
C
Required (Support)
Jun 2016

Yeah I passed. That's because I recalled physics from high school and applied it to my exams but let me tell you that is the only reason. Duffin is extremely unclear in his presentation, doesn't answer questions well, and when pestered about low exam scores blames it on the class' inability to listen to him. I went to every single lecture and took diligent notes that, looking over them, make no sense. It's ridiculous how terrible of a teacher Duffin is and I don't care that his real passion is astronomy, I care that I'm here to get my degree and this imbecile is standing in my way. Avoid him at all costs. These reviews are not lying. I weep for his future students.